Last Saturday 70 activists from from a range of unions including SIPTU, UNITE, MANDATE, CPSU, PSEU, BATU, TEEU, IMPACT, IWU, TUI, INTO ASTI met at a forum organised under the title 'Reclaim the Unions'.

Ever since Neil Lennon came to Scotland to play for his boyhood team he has received torrents of abuse. No doubt for a section of bigots, being from Northern Ireland, a Catholic and a Celtic fan is enough to mark him out for this treatment.

The "What's Left” survey published by the Irish League of Credit Unions makes for grim reading. Even a glance at the figures presented by this nationwide survey of 1,000 people blows apart any hope or illusions that people are coping with this crisis or optimistic about the future.

With much fanfare, the government recently announced that it had got “permission” from their EU and IMF masters to reverse the cut in the minimum wage institued by the previous government. Fine Gael declared that the decision showed the government was “committed to protecting lower paid workers” while Labour TD Derek Nolan said it showed that “Labour's decision to enter government has made a real difference in people's lives”.

Defeat the education cuts

During the General Election campaign the Socialist Party had no illusions about the reactionary role that the Labour Party would play in a coalition government with Fine Gael. We knew that Labour Leader Gilmore’s angry speeches in the Dail against Fianna Fail policy on the banks when he was in opposition, was just so much bluster that would fade the instant he was ensconced in government.

When Dell ceased production in Ireland they employed 3,000 workers directly, and the loss of these jobs was correctly seen as devastating for the people involved and the wider economy. Now a similarly huge jobs massacre is being carried out, but this time in the so-called “nationalised” banks.

The mass struggles against dictatorships and poverty sweeping North Africa and the Middle East encourage workers and young people in the region and internationally to seek to learn from previous revolutionary movements.

The question of banks writing off mortgage debt of householders unable to pay has hit the headlines in the past weeks. Bank of Ireland, AIB and Bank of Scotland have stated they are considering some form of debt write-off. Ireland’s debt crisis is a major burden on the banks and the Irish economy. As part of their recent bank stress test the Central Bank estimated €9.5 billion in bad mortgage debts in the Irish banks between now and 2013. The high level of personal debt is adding to the economy’s deflationary spiral.